SCIENCE. 



131 



Science, it seems, is able to reap some benefit from 

 everything, however trivial ! Fancy the ignoble art of 

 Tattooing being elevated to a philanthropic institution ! 

 And yet, this is indeed the case. Up to the present day, 

 the artists whose business it was thus to decorate the hu- 

 man skin, confined themselves to tracing merely a warlike 

 emblem in indigo or vermillion upon the arms of our 

 troopers, with the number of the regiment added some- 

 times. However, their ambition led them to execute a 

 more intricate and ornamental design, such as a flaming 

 heart pierced by an arrow, accompanied by the inscription, 

 "To Mary," or something equally effective. Henceforth, 

 be it understood, these dermographic artists will be 

 looked upon as valuable auxiliaries to surgery. 



" Why is it," asks Dr. le Comte, who is physician to a 

 regiment of dragoons, "why is it that such quantities of 

 soldiers die upon the battle field ? " And then he 

 replies confidently : " Simply because of the difficulty 

 which arises in regard to arresting hemorrhages," 



The compression of an artery being the best mode of 

 stopping profuse bleeding, Dr. le Comte proposes to 

 teach each soldier first where these vessels are situated, so 

 that he may assist himself while waiting for the surgeon. 

 Therefore, he tattoos an image of some kind upon every 

 portion of the soldier's body where there is an artery. 

 Think of it! Has ever a more ridiculous and absurd 

 idea been put into practice? How infinitely preferable it 

 would be to furnish each soldier with a tourniquet, or at 

 least compel him to attend six lectures upon anatomy, 

 even though such a course might spoil a good soldier to 

 make a bad doctor. 



I believe some news has already reached you of Bal- 

 main's luminous painting, which attracted public atten- 

 tion some months ago and was first practically applied 

 at the establishment of Messrs. Thlee and Horm. The 

 ceilings of their different offices were covered with a layer 

 of the composition, dissolved in water, and the effect 

 produced is that of a diffused light which is sufficient to 

 enable one to distinguish the various objects in the 

 room. 



M. Balmain's idea is excellent, and it would be most 

 advantageous to paint the ceilings of rooms, passages, 

 halls, etc., with his composition, should the use of lamps 

 be dangerous or not absolutely necessary. A simple 

 border of the painting is sufficient in narrow passage 

 ways and stair-cases, and costs a mere nothing. 



When dissolved in water, the composition can be ap- 

 plied like whitewash or kalsomine and is useful in more 

 ways th in one. Large slabs of glass have been covered 

 with it and employed on board of English marine vessels, 

 also in the Waltham powder factory and in Mr. Young's 

 refinery to illumine places where it is impossible to carry 

 alight. This painting has likewise taken the place of 

 lamps upon several railroads in England, particularly 

 those lines where tunnels are so frequent as to necessi- 

 tate constant light in the carriages. 



Now, a word about meteorology. Nearly every book 

 that has been written on the subject, tells us unhesitat- 

 ingly that the Aurora Borealis is a very rare occurrence 

 except in the polar regions. It appears, however, that 

 this is by no means the case, and that it can be observed 

 with equal frequency in countries occupying a much 

 lower latitude. 



M. Sophus Tromholt, of Bergen, Norway, has just 

 published an interesting account of some observations 

 made at his request during the winter of 1878-1879, at 

 one hundred and thirty-two stations extending through- 

 out Sweden, Norway and Denmark. Many extraordi- 

 nary facts concerning the Aurora Borealis can be gath- 

 ered from this work. To give you an example, it was 

 found that scarcely an evening passed that the phenom- 

 enon was not witnessed in one of these countries. M. 

 Tromholt thinks the Aurora is often a local phenomenon, 

 situated but a short distance above the surface of the 

 earth. To strengthen his opinion he quotes many 



cases in which the Aurora was seen at one or more of 

 the stations without being visible at Bergen, the head- 

 quarters, so to speak, where observations were carefully 

 made both day and night. The phenomenon was only 

 seen three times simultaneously by all the stations com- 

 prised in 71 and 55 degrees. And even then, who knows 

 but that it was the same Aurora that each saw ? 



I cannot close my letter without mentioning why the 

 inauguration of the Berlin electric railroad has been so 

 long delayed. As was feared, electricity escaped from 

 the middle rail, and a copper conductor supported by 

 means of stakes has been substituted. Although this is 

 a great improvement, it is doubtful whether the railway 

 can be used in rainy weather, and this fact justifiesan 

 article recently published in L ' Electricite, which affirms 

 that electric railroads can only be properly employed in 

 tunnels such as, for instance, those of the future Metro- 

 politan in Paris. COSMOS. 



Vanillin. — Meissner's new process for the manufacture 

 of the aromatic principle of vanilla consists in producing it 

 from eugenol C 10 HisO 2 bv first forming aceteugenol ; then 

 oxidizing the said product with a certain proportion of per- 

 manganate of potash in a neutral solution ; and, finally, 

 further oxidizing the product witH bichromate of potash in 

 a neutral solution. The aceteugenol is obtained by digest- 

 ing the dry eugenol with a n excess of acetychloride C 2 H 3 

 OC1. The excess of acetychloride is distilled off, and the 

 remainder used for the production of vanillin. (1). The 

 crude aceteugenol is oxidized in a neutral solution, 47 to 

 50 parts of permanganate being used to 20 parts of acet- 

 eugenol. The product obtained is separated by a filter 

 press from the binoxide of manganese formed during the 

 oxidization, and after the decomposition of the small quan- 

 tity of the carbonate of potash by sulphuric acid, the clear 

 liquid is evaporated in a vacuum at 50 deg. C, to about 

 1 - 1 5 th of the original volume. The acetvanillin is ex- 

 tracted from the lye thus obtained by repeated agitation 

 with ether. (2). The lye freed from the acetvanillin is 

 heated to 106 deg. C. to remove all the ether, and after 

 being neutralized is mixed with neutral chromate of pot- 

 ash. The mixture is heated until the chromate is decom- 

 posed, and the product filtered off from the oxide of chrom- 

 ium, and shaken up with ether to remove the acetvanillin 

 formed during the oxidizing process. This operation is re- 

 peated on the lye several t ; mes. After the evaporation of 

 the ether, the acetvanillin is boiled with soda, by which 

 operation crude vanillin is obtained, which is purified by 

 being dissolved in ether, and shaken up in a warm satu- 

 rated solution of bisulphite of soda, and set aside to crys- 

 tallize. The crystals are washed in bisulphite of soda solu- 

 tion and strong alcohol, and finally decomposed by sul- 

 phuric acid when the vanillin separates as a colorless oil, 

 and can be finally recrystallized in water. 



In speaking recently of the Washington telescope we in- 

 advertently referred to it as a 32-inch equatorial. This in- 

 strument is well-known to have an object glass of 26 inches 

 diameter. The objectives for the Russian Government or- 

 dered by Struve is 30 inches, and the Lick equatorial will 

 have a 36-inch objective. 



The Cause of Spontaneous Decomposition of Raw 

 Cane Sugar. — Organisms contained in these sugars multi- 

 ply and produce an inversive ferment. — U. Gayon. 



Persistent Vitality of Carbuncular Germs, and 

 their Preservation in Cultivated Soils. — At a farm 

 near Senlis, cattle which have died of carbuncular fever 

 twelve years ago have been buried at a certain spot in a 

 walled garden. Samples of the soil were lixiviated and 

 concentrated, and guinea-pigs inoculated with the matter 

 died quickly with well-marked symptoms of carbuncle. Of 

 seven sheep allowed experimentally to pass a few hours 

 daily on this spot, two died of the same disease in the 

 course of six weeks, whilst the rest of the flock from which 

 the seven had been taken remained healthy. — M. Pasteur, 



